Search Archives

Surprising Second Failed Arians Signing

October 9th, 2019

During the spring and summer, Bucco Bruce Arians was all fired up about two guys he signed from his days in Arizona.

One was running back Andre Ellington. Arians kept saying the 30-year-old was finally healthy for the first time in years. He took a load of spring and summer snaps but was cut before opening day. He remains out of football — as he was last year. Somewhat blocking challenged Dare Ogunbowale beat him out.

The next Arians-Bowles man was their 2014 first-round pick with the Cardinals, Deone Bucannon, aka “The Moneybacker,” a versatile linebacker secondary player. He barely saw action this season and was released today.

Bucannon, 27, was hard-hitting and aggressive in preseason and Lavonte David told Joe what an asset Bucannon was in helping everyone learn the defense. Per Spotrac.com, Bucannon had locked down $2.5 million for this season.

Obviously, the Bucs aren’t going to miss these guys, but Joe finds it noteworthy that Arians essentially whiffed on his own players, guys he knew well.

Hopefully, handpicked veteran offensive lineman Earl Watford, expected to start for injured guard Alex Cappa on Sunday, isn’t the third strike on former Cardinals parading through One Buc Palace.

According to PFT and PR, they DO get a pick, Joe.First, don’t see that on PFT. Second, it’s speculation that they get a 3rd-rounder. Third, that’s not why they singed Bucannon and gave him a ton of spring and summer reps, including preseason, that could have gone to a developing player, and that’s outside of the Team Glazer money flush. –Joe

I see them as a Cecil Shorts III type player. Much easier to get players to learn a new defensive and offensive system if you have someone who’s played and had success in those systems in the past. Just like Cecil Shorts was familiar with Koetter from Jacksonville.

If he can run, the Bucs should re-sign Emmanuel Hall. The kids a burner, he has good hands, contested catches and he’s 6’2″. I heard he helped a kid named lock or luck sign an nfl qb contract. I’m sure Hall wants to eat too.

Hall can take Perriman’s reps, 4.3 speed, jumps 4 ft, avgs 20+ ypc, he will take the top off of a defense and catch bad passes lol 😉

It’s not guaranteed to secure a comp pick, but if that pick formula wasn’t a factor I do believe he would still be on the roster. The only other reason I can think of is to clear a bit more room for a CB trade

Yeah, I read a bit about the compensatory picks now that Buchanon is gone the Bucs lost 4 players to FA that are in the compensatory formula including Humphries and Kwon Alexander and essentially picked up 3 (Barrett and ????) so they could/should get something but it could simply be a flush away 7th rounder. It seems odd that Dallas and the Bellicheats always seem to get those day 2 compensatory 3rd rounders though (along with beneficial penalty calls on their opponents, cake scheduling, convenient TV timeouts etc…) Too bad some stat geek does not show us fans how this all breaks down……

Arians’ whiffed? Or maybe they were only brought in to help to train up players since they knew the system and coaches, then not playing head and shoulders above the youngins once it counted, they became expendable?

TBBF … I like your take on this; that BA isn’t hesitant to cut a player who doesn’t measure up, AND that this is a rebuild with a few 1-year FA vets sprinkled in. As far as Comp Picks go, I’ll believe it when I see it (not holding my breath though).

The Earl of Watford scares me, although I’m HOPING for the best. Expecting him & Josh Wells to BOTH belly up to the bar & shine is expecting an awful lot IMO.

BTW, Kevin Minter is also a 4th Arizona guy, but he just happened to already be on-board when BA arrived. Personally think he’s done quite well filling in for Devin White, although I expect White to be better in coverage because of his speed. I’m sure that Minter has been a huge help in any event in teaching our rookie the nuances of the position.

Joe response to question: You do realize by cutting him we gain a third round compensatory pick. “That is incorrect. –Joe”

Other sources have noted, the signing of Deone Bucannon offsets Kwon Alexander’s signing with San Fran, but now that we cut Bucannon, the offset is negated and according to the computation, Kwon’s contract was high enough to warrant a third round 2020 pick.